Thursday, January 31, 2013

Perhaps the best part about Nick Walker's stencil art being at such an unusual location is that the kids who play at the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club have the chance to get influenced by the art on the walls.

Like this giant butterfly from Walker, wrapped with ribbons towards the bottom.

Icy & Sot get up on Melrose with a fresh new multi-faceted piece.The main part of the art is a two person life size wheat paste of a stencil featuring Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad squatting next to each other on the ground.Then, all over the two men and all around them are little stencils of cockroaches. The cockroaches go everywhere, from the sidewalk to the walls. If you follow the bugs all the way to the corner the cockroaches get traced back to a storm drain. Dig the interaction with how they are climbing on the aptly named graffiti bomb from 'Bugs'.All under a poster referring to the face of a sucker. Cool stuff. And watch out in the news. Israel just admitted to bombing inside Syria and Iran has vowed revenge. Hope not, but it seems that World Ward III might be brewing in the Middle East.

The aesthetic used with parallel lines denoting the shading on the face has become Teacher's signature style. What is so impressive if that he does not use a computer to generate this effect. Rather, Teacher creates this stylistic graphic gradient with just his brain powered photoshop.

Check out this video for a glimpse at Teacher's art studio and a look at Teacher's new JFK stencil.

Walker visited Los Angeles in 2012 and put up some of his signature images, including his signature 'Vandal' image of a guy in a suit . . . at the Boys & Girls Club in Santa Monica.

Walker left the word 'Vandal' off of this piece, but it is a humorous juxtaposition to see Walker's commissioned Vandal riding on a legal wall next to some playground equipment and some human size Alvin & the Chipmunks characters.

As for the art, Walker cuts an impressive stencil and this is an interesting piece with a fist in place of the man's face. The work is good, but this piece begs the question--What makes a street artist? Walker is one of the biggest names in the world, yet he has no street cred. Shouldn't a street artist have street cred? Or does that not matter?

The street stencil by Plastic Jesus of Lance Armstrong has been blowing up on the internet, and it has gone viral like the flu! The initial story first broke exclusively on M&F, and you can see the original post HERE.

It has even got so big that Plastic Jesus got a feature piece done by CNN. It is a very cool story with some juicy info about the artist, and M&F got to contribute a few lines. You can check out the CNN article on Plastic Jesus HERE.

Big ups to Plastic Jesus for coming out with a relevant hard hitting piece, and huge congrats on the subsequent hype.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Music has deep roots in promotional street advertising. Music flyers were unofficial street art before there was such a thing as street art.

So M&F always tries to welcome and pay respect to the many music bands who are hustlin' and getting up on the streets.

With that said, there does seem to be a difference between band's no one has heard of trying to make a name, as opposed to big label bands with major corporate backing bringing a campaign to the streets.

Well, there has been a recent wheat paste campaign in Los Angeles that appeared to be from an artist as it was put up unsigned around town. It turns out that the pieces were not straight street art, but a street campaign for big name band 'Bad Religion'. The secret was revealed when M&F Contributor RS70 spotted a billboard with the same imagery as the street campaign riding in Los Angeles.

Thoughts? Is there any difference between up & coming bands vs. big label band's getting up on the streets? Should bands even be getting up?

M&F contributor Mohamed had the opportune street adventure of coming up on street artist Nomatter Whatness, and catching him in the act.

Mohamed captured some action shots, and as you can see, Nomatter Whatness is getting some help from his lover. This is very cool, because this scene fits perfectly with the theme of Nomatter's art, which often focuses on lovers.

Mohamed also reports that Nomatter Whatness was very generous and hooked him up with one of the street piece's he was putting up. Very cool.

Interesting double piece from TBD Photography. Both sides feature the same image of a man sleeping on the sidewalk went an awkwardly bent hand. However the one on the left is cropped closer and in full color, while the one on the right is from a further back perspective and in black and white.

Dig this piece which captures and portrays through art the different ways of looking at something.